Away Your Bun

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hello, hello, this is June. I’m calling from Miami, Florida.

Well, hello, June. We’re glad to have you.

Hello, June.

I just had a thought. Every time I hear A Way with Words, I always remember an experience I had way back in Jamaica.

We had an exchange student from Scotland, and she was assigned to me at my workplace.

And at Easter, we have this thing in Jamaica where we have Easter buns.

And my bun was sitting on the windowsill.

And I went away.

When I came back, she said to me in her beautiful Scottish accent, oh, Miss June, somebody’s away with your buns.

And every time I hear A Way with Words, I remember her because it just resonated so well with me.

And it’s a comment. I know it’s just their way of saying things in Scotland.

But away with your buns.

Yeah, away almost takes on a verb role there, doesn’t it?

It’s very odd.

What kind of bun are we talking about here?

Or is this like a dessert or a pastry?

What is happening with this bun?

It’s a pastry.

At Easter, we’re very British in the Caribbean.

And so we have this Easter bun that we make.

It’s just got similar to, what would I say here now?

It’s got fruits like cherries and mixed fruits in there.

And we have it with cheese at Easter time.

And it’s really a delicacy and people look forward to it so much in Jamaica.

Yeah, I would away with that.

Martha’s the culprit.

If you go to Scotland, it’s an everyday way of speaking.

You might hear someone say, come on, lads, let’s away to home.

And so away kind of, there’s some kind of verb deletion happening here.

Where instead of let’s go away to home, or if you use it in the past tense, someone away with your bun, is that what she said?

Someone away with your bun?

Yes, someone’s away with your bun.

So like the someone has gone away with your bun would be like the longer way of saying it, but they just kind of do the verb deletion.

And this is a thing that people do in English all the time.

We’ll just say stuff and we’ll leave out the verb because it’s understood.

So that was just a thought I had to share with you.

That’s very nice.

Thank you for sharing your memory.

We really appreciate it, June.

Call us again sometime.

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

God bless.

Take care.

Bye.

Well, get off your buns and give us a call, 877-929-9673.

You can also text that same number or email us words@waywordradio.org.